Donald Trump has, in just four days, done a complete 360 on the unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a white nationalist rally erupted into violence that resulted in the death of one counter-protester. After blaming “many sides” for the violence in his initial remarks over the weekend, on Monday he condemned the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi and other white supremacist demonstrators. Then today (Aug. 15), he doubled-down on his original position, unleashing a tirade of moral equivalency during a Trump Tower press conference in New York.

His argument swiveled on the ostensible reason for the Unite the Right rally: their opposition to the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, the general who led the Confederate Army in the US Civil War. Demonstrators in other American cities also have begun toppling statues of Confederate leaders.
Trump likened this to felling the statues of some of America’s Founding Fathers:

So this week it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that [Confederate general] Stonewall Jackson’s coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You know, you all–you really do have to ask yourself, where does it stop?

Pushed by reporters to explain why he equated the leaders of the American revolution with the Confederate generals, Trump said:

George Washington was a slave owner. Was George Washington a slave owner? So, will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down—excuse me—are we going to take down—are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson? What do you think of Thomas Jefferson? You like him? OK. Good. Are we going to take down the statue? Because he was a major slave owner. Now, are we going to take down his statue? So you know what? It’s fine. You’re changing history. You’re changing culture.

But one person who was very happy with the words of the US President was the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, who just as quickly reacted on Twitter, thanking the President “for your honesty and courage.”
“Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville & condemn the leftist terrorists in BLM/Antifa,” was the full tweet from an account that is not verified by Twitter but appears to represent Duke and features videos apparently posted by and of him.